Its CRAZY to think this game has been along this long isn't it??? (damn)

and I know there's an event planned for the actual date of the anniversary....but it does seem fitting to celebrate it ....back where it all began..... Gen Con this year!
Anyone thinking of going? Any events, ideas you'd like to see? I know we'll have better prize support lined up this year (we even have the promo card ready!)

If you're coming and have thoughts and suggestions.... PLEASE speak up.... I'd love to see this be a big one this year and all input is most welcome!

This was a side discussion we were having last night and I'm kinda curious to see what other people thought of it:

What are the best and worst cards designed by world champs?
Are there any that are must packs?
Which ones have you looked at and never used?

My top 3 best ones would be:
D-Bag
Frankie Ho
Two Time

(Tech in a bottle would probably be next)

The worst is kinda hard, but I'd probably put my new gimmick on that list, the idea was great (it's probably more useful now, protect that ACE and all, but a 0F action? Yeah)

First of all is down the list, but that's because it got kicked in the balls as it needed to, but enough of my thoughts, have at it!

I know I should have done this month's ago, but hey ....real life and I wasn't really sure on finding a venue, but I do what I do, I make it up as I go along! So for those in the area for wrestlemania, or just the NYC area Raw dealers left, I figured I'd throw this together and we'll see what sticks from it!!

Saturday April 13th
Time 1:15pm-5 (or 6, depending on turnout)
Location: Sun Tavern Roselle Park, NJ
(I think the address is 600 W. Westfield Ave, but you get off the parkway at 137, go left and it's right there on the right)

Format: VC
entry cost: just eat lunch/dinner here
Prizes: TBD, I'll try to wing something

And yes this is baby step one to seeing about a big once a year deal out here, but let's see how this goes first!

More to be announced as I try to figure it all out, and maybe anyone who wants to come by for nXt takeover, I'll see what I can do for my house, or bring a fire stick to a hotel room or something ....we'll make it work!!!

Well the "random revo" thing failed quite miserably :p (timing was bad too), but hey.....we got a whole new set to play with now, right? No better time to try to give this another shot!! But we'll do this a little different, to try to cut down on people pouting, taking their ball and disappearing because they didn't like their deck (admit it people it happened :p ) ......we'll do this one different!

1. Are we good with making the field v9 folk only? Or should we expand it?
2. Sign-ups will be on a first come, first serve ....if you wanna play Balor, you better be first to him! There will be no duplicates!

Hopefully we can get enough people and spin a good event for this one .....you want to do something else? Speak up now!!

Sign-ups:
Me: Neville
Niccccckkkkkk: the ascension
dilbert: American alpha
Brian: Nakamua
Drywall: Mojo Awful .... err.. Rawley Bo Dallas!
Mitch: Alexa Bliss
SG Tim: Finn Balor
Jokerfish: Tyler Breeze
MattHardyNotDie: Samoa Joe
Laflamme: Asuka
Luke Lash: Barron Corbin
Keith: Vaudvillans
Karkamus: Emma

So I guess it's about time I started this eh?

Sign-ups have BEGUN for the next lackey event, as the title suggests the format will be RANDOM revolution!! Revo format, you will be randomly assigned two superstars, pick one or if you don't like either, you may choose OPTION C, but remember, if you go option C and get Matt Hardy .....you're stuck with his fat-Broken ass!!

Who's in??

Me:
Brian:
Mitch:
Rio:
Keith:
Keith's GF: (gonna need her name soon :p )

.....and you???

Join the <R>andom-lution!!!!

With the success of Funk Con and now talk of the Canadians planning a big event, it got me thinking (well I had been wondering about this last year too, just timing and real life got in the way), but now I'm kicking myself in the ass and trying to poke for interest and see what people would think.... I wanted to set-up a big once a year event in the NJ area.....and hey LOOK ..... wrestlemania is in NJ next year.... Seems as good a reason and throwback to Raw Dean's roots of having a big event that weekend (I'm targeting the Piscataway area since it's close enough to all the madness, but you won't be stuck in the middle of it), I thought of making a poll, but I wanted names next to the responses so:

1. Would you be interested in a mega-NJ event?

2. Would you like it Wrestlemania weekend?

The sooner I get a response the sooner I can plan stuff :)

(Mitch if you could pin this that would be awesome)

since some of us have different names on TCO than we do on Discord, I think a handy reference guide would be in order:

TCO Name:         Discord Name:
Big Pimpin           MightyBP
niiiiick                 lssjniiiiick
dilbert505           dilbert719

I know we're still waiting on the Finals to finish....might as well get the paperwork done on the next event!!!

So through popular request....we compiled a list....or should we say an anti-list for this event....a chunk of guys most people don't consider top-tier.....or flat out BAD they are....so much like the last event....you sign up....you get two of those decks randomly chosen for you.....you pick one of the two....OR....you go option C and take one random from the rest of the field....and here's the field of decks to sift through

all I ....we....whatever....ask, just because you get a "bad draw" (that's the WHOLE DAMN POINT)...play it out....drops suck for everyone and make things a general hassle, we're not playing for anything here, and the whole idea IS to keep the game going ....just try to be around and we can move the rounds along as best as possible :)

and now THE LIST:

Bam Bam Bigelow         Brie Bella TB         Brodus Clay               
Brutus Beefcake      Buh-Buh Ray Dudley             Darren Young               
David Otunga      Demolition                 Dean Malenko
D-Von Dudley                Eric Rowan         Evan Bourne               
Festus         Funaki                       Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Heidenreich                Irwin R. Schyster      Jack Swagger               
Jerry Lawler      Justin Gabriel                Lance Storm
Lex Luger               Maryse            Michael Tarver               
Mikey         Mitch                        Nikolai Volkoff
Norman Smiley           Prime Time Players      Raven                   
Rene Dupree      Rowdy Roddy Piper               R-Truth
Sami Zayn                Santino Marella      Seth Rollins               
Sin Cara      Stevie Richards         Team Hell No               
The Bella Twins      The Dangerous Alliance            The Heartbreak Kid TB
The King of Kings(tb)   The Rockers         The Sexy Beast               
The Steiner Brothers   The Usos                   Titus O'Neil
Yokozuna

and the sign-ups so far:
me
dilbert
niiiiiicccckkkkkk
Mitch 
null1

sign up....play.....and enjoy!

.....so shall we give this another spin???

I liked Drywall's suggestion of limiting this pool to the new VHS and a random virtual choice from each of the other sets as well and then randomly assigning superstars to people from that list (the "dice roll" feature in lackey is totally my best friend :) ) .....so before we start up, is that format cool with everyone? And who's interested....all I ask is if you say you will....PLEASE give it your best and true efforts to get your game in within the 10-day period (I'm going to try to give two weekends per round to give people their best chance to get their games in), so let's see how many are in before I need to create the deck pool......so be ye in or nay?

Signed up:
me
Brian
Mitch
dilbery
skudz
niiiiiiicccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Drywall
Shelan
LawnmowerMan
imc
Joker
MPT
tutoman
riotthebeast
rumpelstiltskin
(crap I forget Lou's TCO name, so Lou!)
Heldacarite

This tournament will be ran with the official TCO Discord server(https://discord.gg/AGF4wG8), results are to be posted in the "lackey-tournament" channel, pairings will still be kept on TCO and also pinned to the tournament channel in Discord.

Round 1:
imc vs Drywall
Lou vs tutoman
Brian vs lotjx
Me vs rumpel
skudz vs niiiiicccckkkkkkk
Helda vs matthardynotdie
Mitch def. riothebeast
Shelan (count out) def. John P
Dilbert vs Jokerfish
Lawnmower-bye

Round 2:
Brian vs tutoman
Me vs Drywall
Heldacarite vs Jokerfish
Mitch vs Shelan
Lawnmower Man vs niiiiccccckkkkk
imc2002 vs lotjx
Lou vs Rumpel
skudz vs matthardynotdie
John P vs RIOthebeast
Dilbert the bye

Round 3:
Round 3:
Mitch vs tutoman
niiiicccckkkkkk vs lotjx
Brian vs Jokerfish
me vs Lawnmower Man
Dilbert vs Matthardynotdie
skuds vs rumpel
Shelan vs Dizzy
Helda vs. Drywall
Lou vs John

Round 4:
Mitch vs niiiiccccckkkkkk
Brian vs Drywall
Helda vs tutoman
Lawnmower Man vs matthardynotdie
Lou vs lotjx
me vs Joker
Dilbert vs Shelan
skudz vs Dizzy
John P vs Rumpel

I don't mean this to be a slam on the Funk-Con tournament and the other ones in the area (as I've said elsewhere, I'd LOVE to have a big once a year event in NJ aside of these other cool Raw Deal events).....but it seems to me there's a lot more buzz and excitement for this con "West of Chicago" then there is for the annual trip to Indianapolis......and I'm just wondering "what makes that event more interesting or appealing to the people that are thinking of going to this and not Gen Con six weeks later??? This isn't intended as a flame war of this event vs Indy (I'm planning/hoping on both)....but I am curious into the decision process on both for people, and if there's something we can do to make Gen Con more appealing for people to come and join us at!

Well now with Gen Con out of the way and a whole new....well....HALF set....to play with and people getting al antsy to try out the new guys, perhaps it's time to run the next event?

I don't mind running it, it's not that hard

I'd also like to suggest, like we did for v7's release, perhaps a random draw of superstar for everyone (providing the entrants don't get more than the guys we have available, but I don't think it will), we'll need to enforce the "move the games along" rules better, but that can be done.....so who's in?? :)

Confirmed list:
1. me
2. dilbert
3. niiiiccccccckkkk
4. imc2002
5. jokerfish
6. mitch
7. Brian
8. MPT
9. Drywall
10. Stand BACK....there's a HURRICANE playing Raw Deal!
11. Shelan
12. Kevin (king1050) LawnMowerMan
13. Crazyfrogsy
14. Ekhari
15. Therien
16. Rumpelstiltskin
17. tutoman
18. matthardynotdie

v8 folk:
1. British Bulldog
2. bWo
3. Dusty Rhodes
4. Arn Anderson
5. Fandango
6. Hart Dynasty
7. Ken Shamrock
8. Nation of Domination
9. Summer Rae
10. Terry Funk
11. Tensai
12. The Charismatic Enigma (Jeff Hardy remake)
13. The Lionheart (Jericho premake)
14. Team X-Treme TB
15. The Brood
16. Val Venis
17. Kevin Owens
18. Rusev
19. Big E
20. Stardust
21. Xavier Woods
22. The New Day

In case Lackey is being a female dog, this is a Discord server made for TCO:
https://discord.gg/AGF4wG8

Round 1: (to be finished by Sept 25)
tutoman (Summer Rae)   pins ekhari (Dusty Rhodes)
dilbert   (Arn Anderson)  pins  KevinLawnmower Man (Terry Funk)
Drywall  (bWo)           wins via forefeit   therien (The Brood)
Me  (Rusev)             wins via forefeit   imc2002 (Kevin Owens)
jokerfish  (The New Day)    wins via forefeit      crazyfrogsy (Tensai)     
mitch (Stardust)   pins     MPT (Xavier Woods)
Brian (Val Venis)   pins   Shelan (Fandango)
rumpelstikin     (The Lionheart)      pins  Hurricane (Big E)
matthardynotdie (Team X-Treme TB)    pins     niiicckkkkkk     (British Bulldog)

Round 2
tutoman (Summer Rae)      pins matthardynotdie (Team-X tb)
dilbert (Arn)         pins Jokerfish (the New Day)
Drywall (bwo)         vs Rumpelstikin  (the Lionheart)
Brian (Val Venis)         pins Me (Rusev)
Mitch (Stardust)      pins Ekhari (Dusty)
crazyfrogsy (Tensai)      vs imc2002 (KO)
therien (the Brood)   wins   niiiiccckkkkkk (Bulldog)
Hurricane (Big E)      pins Lawnmower-Kevin (Terry Funk)
Shelan (FanDANgo)      wins MPT (Xavier Woods)

Round 3
tutoman (Summer Rae)   def. Brian (Val Venis)
Mitch (Stardust)         def. dilbert (Arn)
Rumpelstikin  (the Lionheart)        def.  matthardynotdie (Team-X tb)
Drywall (bwo)         def. Jokerfish (the New Day)
me (Rusev)                    def.  therien (the Brood) -- DROP
Shelan (FanDANgo)      def.  Hurricane (Big E) -- DROP
Ekhari (Dusty)            def. niiiiccckkkkkk (Bulldog) -- DROP
MPT (Xavier Woods)      double CO Lawnmower-Kevin (Terry Funk)

Round 4
Mitch (Startdust)    vs. tutoman (Summer Rae)
dilbert (Arn)      vs. matthardynotdie (Team-X tb)
Drywall (bWo)      vs. Shelan (fanDANgo)
Me (Rusev)      vs. rumpel (the Lionheart)
Brian (Val Venis)   vs. Ekhari (Dusty)
jokerfish (the New Day)   vs. LawnmowerMan (Terry Funk)
MPT gets the bye

Top 4:
Brian (Val Venis) Vs  Mitch (Stardust)   
tutoman (Summer Rae) Vs dilbert (Arn)   

Finals:
tutoman (Summer Rae) Vs  Mitch (Stardust)   

Winner: Mitch!

so, if I am the Young Bucks....and I flip cards....and trigger my gimmick....which triggers ring of fire.....which triggers my gimmick..... see the issue here?

Does this cause an infinite loop or does this end after one sequence?

Say I play Superkick....I flip two, I scoop one, I trigger ring of fire....I scoop one more, does it stop there or am I dumping my deck into my ringside in an infinite loop?

(I know this post won't survive the rollover but that's ok)

If Sage rolls Power and has less then 3 cards in her deck, can she still do her gimmick?? It came up over the weekend, and I let the 8 year old have her way with the gimmick....but wanted to be sure that was the legal play.....

.....so what the hell is going on with this??? If we lost John to a Pokemon coma or something....I'll gladly run it....who's interested??

We had this question pop up over the weekend, if my opponent has the WWE Women's Title out and I choose to overturn 2 instead of discarding, would an effect like Carlito, D-Bag etc reverse that effect?? I'm curious on the answer here....

About 3 or 4 months ago when I was showing my GF Supershow one of her kids got out of bed like she does every night and came into the living room and normally we just yell GO TO BED and they go back.....this time one of the twins saw what we were doing and asked about it (guess it coulda been worse :p ) .....so we made her a deal....go back to bed and next time I'll bring the game and we'll let you guys play too....turns out they LOVED IT and insist I bring it every time I go there (playing it between commercials during the Flash on Tuesday was an exercise in hilarity  :laugh: ) ....sooo anyway....I forget how they noticed, maybe I was building a playtest deck...or just looking through some cards ....and of course....nosey kids are nosey....and now they're clamoring to try "this other wrestling game"...oh boy.....I know better than to venture into Classic Raw Deal and certainly NOT AA, it would take them a DAY to read all the backstage cards alone......

....so I'm thinking Revolution (and I'm also waving the aggression rule, I am not sitting through eight year old rage because she drew a bad hand :p ) .....and I'm trying to think of some SUPER-SIMPLE decks (yes Brian I'm glaring at YOU with that one)....to get them into the game and give them a taste of what this game is like.....the few guys I am thinking of now:
the Shield
Tajiri
HHH
Kurt Angle

(notice all of these guys have basic abilites, a simple mechanic and will let them SPAM moves till it hurts)..... any other suggestions you guys can think of??

I may also limit the mid-match cards to bring them along slower too....which would wipe Angle from the conversation too.....

Ran into a little bit of confusion this morning, I play No Escape and then Attempt to use the effect of Halloween Havoc to play a non-unique 3D strike flipping the top card of my arsenal, is this a legal play, or does No Escape's restriction of "unique moves only" block this? I can see either one being the case, since you're not actually playing one, just doing a card effect considered to be said maneuver.....

I was gonna post this over the weekend....oops!!! Well here we go anyway, I usually like to run these in January and August, but we wanted to kick the tires on the nXt format, so a month behind is fine too....you know the deal by now....we have 13 decks from Mike's collection put on the side from his passing....you pick one....you play it...and you wait for me to draw Too Cool and lose my mind :p

Anyway, it's a fun event and always a challenge to climb into someone else's Raw Deal Brain.....

Start Time: Probably 5pm-ish....depends on my hockey schedule that day (and not like people aren't coming for Fastlane anyway)

Location:
160 W. Westfield Ave, Apt A-1
Roselle Park, NJ

Looking forward to it!

Since it's at that time of year when we need to lock down times and events with the folks at Indy for events and a bit of a disappointing turnout for last year's Mike Anstett Memorial Invitational, I figured I'd ask the people going about it....I don't mind bringing the decks and having everything all set up for it....I just wanna be sure we have people actually coming out to play in it so two simple question:

1. If you attend Gen Con this year, would you be interested in playing in it this year?

2. If so, do you have a day you'd prefer? Thursday Night? Friday Night? Sunday after everything is done?

I do love and enjoy the event, but I want to make sure there's a demand for it within the Raw Deal Community still

Maybe down the road we can run a lackey event with said decks too if people are interested (it's been a thought in the back of my head since John started doing Lackey Events)....but this is more about focusing on running this again at Gen Con....please let me know ASAP if you're coming and would like to be involved since we need to reserve the space and time with the Gen Con folks soon (and by soon I mean tomorrow)

So we finally kicked the tires on the new nXt Format....and FINISHED AN EVENT IN ONE DAY (that's a record, the format certainly helped, pre-match was infinitely quicker)...when I have more time later I'll add some thoughts on comments on the format itself, but here's who was there and who they played:

Scott Mackie: Shield, 4-0
Lou Yontef: b2B Warrior, 1-3
Steve Laflamme: Sable, 2-2
Brian Paolercio:  Big Bossman,
John Ramos: JBL, 2-2

Round 1:
Scott (Shield) vs Laflamme (Sable)
Jesus Sable/Rock is a BEAST to kill (even with only 50 cards), Sable crawls to 10 and then starts spamming Cold Cocked (make your own jokes here), to keep you in volley lock and keep
you throwing moves from hand, than sponges them and puts the reversal right back to the bottom....game basically goes, Shield reverses Volley card, she gets two other volley moves back,
Sable sponges move on overturn, saves 2 reversals (a once is enough and a skirt) for the triple power bomb then gets the 3rd reversal on ONE..but eventually falls to of all things a WhirlWind
Kick with only one card left in deck and no reversals in hand....Sable put up a bigger fight than the Seahawks had to this point....heh
Winner: the Shield

Lou vs Ramos
An upset!!! I fully expected JBL with 12 cards + 2 for the limo and using dynamically inclined to get his hand set and rolling along to steamroll Warriors multis, the punch of course goes
through, it gets stopped on overturn. Lou crawls to 9, gets the self-destruction out and just guys JBL's ring and pulls out the HUGE upset!
Winner: Warrior

Round 2:
Scott vs Lou
Shield gets a little bit of a slow start and doesn't get all the reversals in hand (rare for the Shield), but the Shield does get the reversals finally, slowing Lou down with the vests in play
and just inches and pounds some blindsides through till Warrior runs out of reversals....Warrior flips break the hold on the last card and just to end the misery I took the count-out
Winner: the Shield

Ramos vs Brian
I was a bit preoccupied with the football and a bit of hockey stuffs for this week with Lou and didn't see this one, but DaB JBL is pretty damn good.....
Winner: JBL

Round 3:
Scott vs Ramos
Pump Kick goes through, but used Hounds of Justice to see his hand to see an 8D Full Nelson Slam TB would go through, used the 8F to throw some Vickie Protected Moves and Blindsides
while drawing tons of red to deny him fort after the Pump Kick, Seth's Enzigurl and Revo of the Mind officially end the game for him
Winner: the Shield

Brian vs Laflamme
Sable got a bad hand and damn Bossman beat her like he was Marc Mero...good God....Steve usually makes these decks good, but it just never got out of the blocks here....
Winner: the Big Bossman

Round 4:
Scott vs Brian
Brian gets the first handcuffed/panic off, but after that the Shield does what they do....reverse, ability, discard blindsides and then throw them, with the draw effect off the reversals,
the fort to play blindsides and Brian's hand not being able to keep up with mine I just outlasted and beat him down with countered-blindsides, Brian did goof and didn't reach/grasp the
Blindside Slam but I don't think it mattered at that point
Winner: the Shield

Laflamme vs Lou
Lou just had some bad deck luck in this game, Frankie Ho made his multi reversals useful, and switching between DMI and Rock to control his hand and ringside, plus the 8 card discard
(ouch) for the men who came to see me and Lou just never got out of the box, shoot promo got double-skirted and his own Old School Wrestling Match (TB) finished him
Winner: Sable

Round 5:
Brian vs Lou:
Warrior gets his starting F on the punch, but then Bossman's ability to un-multi and scoop moves from ringside was just too much, Lou used the undermine to try to come back, but Bossman just threw the same moves again that Lou removed and Law and Order prevailed!
Winner: the Big Bossman

Funny side comment was Lou a bit annoyed sniping about the fact that in "the real wrestling world" Warrior used to beat Bossman in 90 seconds....guess that Sable loss annoyed him too  8)

Laflamme vs Ramos:
Didn't see much of this, but I'm sure JBL's superior hand and searching powers served him well against a Sable deck that needs some tweaking (I didn't like most of the 6 specifics he packed in her,
but that's a debate for another day)
Winner: JBL

All in all a good day, solid turnout and a thumbs up to the nXt experience (though I do miss the signing appearance and the backstage auto session for hand cycling and the like, but I'm getting out of that habit the more I play the format)

...looking forward to the next one, though we might do a MAMI event since we didn't run it this month (I like doing one in January and one in August when possible for some obvious reasons)...we
shall discuss!!!